BIOFIN Mexico organizes the first working table on finance for the sustainable management of biodiversity

Mexico City. On December 1, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Mexico, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the German Development Bank (KFW, for its acronym in German), organized the first working table on finance for the sustainable management of biodiversity.

This edition sought to gather, prior to the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the 8th Replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), representatives of national and international organizations active in Mexico that promote financing in rural areas with schemes for the integration of subsidies/technical support and credit for the sustainable management of biodiversity.

The objective of this table was to exchange information on these organizations’ work, their operating mechanisms and the geographic areas of attention, in order to identify possible synergies and collaboration strategies to maximize the financial resources destined to the sustainable management of biodiversity. In addition, it was sought that with this table the bases were laid to have a periodic space for coordination.
The event was attended by representatives of the French Development Agency (AFD, for its acronym in French), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ, for its acronym in German), the World Bank, the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation (FMCN, for its acronym in Spanish), Conservation International (CI), The Nature Conservancy, the Rural Sector Capitalization and Investment Fund (FOCIR, for its acronym in Spanish), UNDP in Mexico, WRI, KFW, as well as BIOFIN Mexico.

Regarding the main findings, it was concluded that there is a wide range of projects and financing schemes for biodiversity by various organizations, distributed in various regions of the country. In addition, it was identified that there is a clear will, on the part of the people representing these international organizations, to follow up on the worktables in order to establish synergies and maximize the impact of resources, and to avoid duplicating efforts.

Finally, as a result of the exchanges carried out at the table, BIOFIN was appointed as the technical secretariat to provide follow-up to the subsequent tables that are carried out. The next edition is expected to take place at the end of the first quarter of 2023.